Postgraduate Course: Climate Change Mitigation (online) (PGGE11207)
Course Outline
| School | School of Geosciences |
College | College of Science and Engineering |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 11 (Postgraduate) |
| Course type | Online Distance Learning |
Availability | Not available to visiting students |
| SCQF Credits | 20 |
ECTS Credits | 10 |
| Summary | This course examines climate change mitigation and solutions, covering technology, policy and scientific understanding. This course examines climate change mitigation at a range of scales from geoengineering to microgeneration. It explores the role of science & technology, economics and innovation in carbon management and the interactions of other drivers (e.g. land-use change, energy access & security, economic development) with carbon management policy and ethics. It includes coverage of international and national targets and scenarios, local and household mitigation, and examines feasibility and implementation of carbon reduction projects such as wind energy, solar PV, forestry and anaerobic digestion. |
| Course description |
All dates for lectures and tutorials can be found in the Course Handbook.
This course considers climate change mitigation at a range of scales from the local to global, the role of the public, private and third sectors and includes an array of options and technologies including renewable energy sources (RES), infrastructure, energy efficiency, waste, reforestation and land-use change, demand reduction, behavioural change and geoengineering. The focus is global though examples will frequently draw upon experience in the UK and other parts of Europe.
The course explores the need for managing emissions within known carbon budgets, therefore requiring deep greenhouse gas emission cuts and achievement of carbon neutrality (= net carbon zero) by mid-21st century in many developed countries. Scenarios of possible future emissions will be presented and analysed and the adequacy of emission control targets at the international and national scales will be presented and critically evaluated. The challenge of the multiple-agendas and drivers at work in addition to climate change, including ¿energy security¿, ¿energy costs¿, ¿land-use¿ and ¿consumption¿, will be explored and the implications drawn-out. The ¿three domains / three pillars¿ approach, which allows for a coherent approach to understanding carbon mitigation efforts from the behavioural and practice-focused (e.g. energy efficiency), to market-based instruments and then, further, to systemic, larger-scale and longer-term innovation processes, is presented and explained. Through using such frameworks, we will be in a position to evaluate the adequacy, effectiveness and fairness of climate change mitigation policies, options, actions and measures.
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Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
| Pre-requisites |
Students MUST have passed:
Climate Change Impacts and Adaptation (Online) (PGGE11189) OR
Carbon Economics (online) (PGGE11219)
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Co-requisites | |
| Prohibited Combinations | |
Other requirements | This course is only available to students enrolled on PG Cert Climate Change Management (Online Learning) or MSc Carbon Management (Online Learning). Students are not permitted to audit this course unless formally agreed with the Course Organiser. |
Course Delivery Information
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| Academic year 2021/22, Not available to visiting students (SS1)
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Quota: None |
| Course Start |
Semester 2 |
| Course Start Date |
17/01/2022 |
Timetable |
Timetable |
| Learning and Teaching activities (Further Info) |
Total Hours:
200
(
Online Activities 40,
Programme Level Learning and Teaching Hours 4,
Directed Learning and Independent Learning Hours
156 )
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| Assessment (Further Info) |
Written Exam
0 %,
Coursework
100 %,
Practical Exam
0 %
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| Additional Information (Assessment) |
Coursework 100%
Blog Assignment (two blogs over the course of the semester) - (30%)
Deadline: Thursday, week 6.
Final Report (consisting of a maximum of 3,000 words) - (70%)
Deadline: Monday, week 11.
Formative assessment will be provided at several points during the course. |
| Feedback |
Formative feedback will be provided on both assignments in sufficient time to help you improve your submissions.
Written summative feedback on all assignments will be provided within 3 weeks of submission.
The academic team also rely on feedback from you to help them continually improve the course. This feedback can be given directly to the Course Organiser, Tutor, Programme Director, Personal Tutor or via a class representative. |
| No Exam Information |
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
- Understand global, national and local climate change mitigation policies and measures at a high-level, including projected emissions and targets
- Understand the range and potential of low and zero carbon technologies
- Be familiar with non-CO2 greenhouse gases and their mitigation
- Evaluate the potential for geoengineering of climate
- Think criticaly about greenhouse gas control using environmental, techno-scientific, socio-economic, political and cultural frameworks and criteria
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Reading List
Summary for Policymakers, IPCC Working Group III (2014)
Planetary Economics: Energy, Climate Change and the Three Domains of Sustainable Development, Michael Grubb (Routledge, 2014)
'Geoengineering the Climate' (Royal Society)
Drawdown¿, Paul Hawkens (Ed.), Penguin (2017)
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Additional Information
| Graduate Attributes and Skills |
Cognitive Skills:
The course deepens and develops the numerical skills, analytical skills and skills of synthesis and presentation.
Subject Specific Skills:
On completion of the course, students should be able to make an assessment of the key climate change mitigation strategies available to a business / industry sector or government department and to have the necessary knowledge and skills to recommend an effective suite of such strategies. This includes an awareness of the incentives for, and barriers to, low-carbon technology and emission reduction policies.
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| Additional Class Delivery Information |
This course is delivered entirely online with our bespoke Virtual Learning Environment (course website, climate.ed.ac.uk), Blackboard Collaborate (for tutorials, accessible via Learn) and PebblePad (for the blog assessments, accessible via Learn) as the primary technologies. As with all the online courses, there is no requirement to attend on-campus. Due to CV19 restrictions, access to the University campus in January onwards is limited, subject to Government guidelines, though individual study spaces can be booked via an App. |
| Keywords | Not entered |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Dr Simon Shackley
Tel: (0131 6)50 7862
Email: simon.shackley@ed.ac.uk |
Course secretary | Ms Heather Penman
Tel: (0131 6)50
Email: heather.penman@ed.ac.uk |
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